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Thursday, May 23, 2013

Geranium Festival Recap and Findings

So
the festival morning started with epic rain.. the first in 20 years of
the festivals history.. don't I feel special ;) But then it cleared out and we had about 1/2 to 2/3 the normal crowds. I was pleasantly
surprised to find myself painting faces non stop from 8:30 to five with
no break until four when I sat for a moment and took a sip of water. I heard from one child that he had waited an hour. This is when I finely raise my eyes up from the child and was astonished to see a long line of kids and parents.

I
averaged between 10 minutes to 6 minutes per face. Most people bought
the half face. I heard several kids argue with parents that this was
what they wanted not the butterfly on the forehead down the way! I saw
one fight between a parent who waited in line and the inevitable ill
behaved lady teaching her child to break in line. I was terrified and chose to keep my head down and focused on painting rather than scolding the all deserving Poorly behaving lady.

I planned ahead and had a friend show up who has a lovely blank
canvas :) on the back of his head. And after getting a free paint job he
walked about and which was a great way to have people sent my way.

You should've seen it when he put his sunglasses on backwards with this paint job. It's a hoot!
So the one big thing I will do differently next time is that I set up
the face painting between my two art displays. The prints were
displayed on a table made onto the displays so that they could get
prints of what they liked right there. BUT the line of kids blocked all
of that and so though I did sale some prints, it was large unnoticed.
I set up a table at the front of my booth with a fake chalk board
made of black foam core board and white paint marker that listed my
upcoming art events such as the Fried Green Paints event as well as the
classes. Below that on the table was a sheet to sign up for my
newsletter to find out about future art shows, event and classes. And
the sheets is quite full!!!!!!!!!!
I made enough to pay for everything I invested print and booth wise,
plus a tiny profit. BUT I have loads of prints lefts and everything I
need to do t his for a few years not. It will only need occasional face
paint restocked ans eventually more prints of new art. I want to say Thank you DAN MILLER!!!!!!!!! You inspire me, Encourage
Me and give the pat on the back for thinking out side of the box every
time I hear you tale someones story. Of course I was lucky to have my
family backing me up with helping set up and taking money while I
painted away!
at the end of the day I got just what I needed... Cotton Candy!